The present invention is directed to a security system for personal computers, often called microcomputers, and has specific application to the IBM line of personal microcomputers.
Microcomputers have grown in use and in number over the last decade, and are currently used by individuals, small business, medium-sized businesses, and large businesses. The use of these microcomputers runs the gamut from word processing to bookkeeping to engineering and scientific applications. Due to the ever-growing sophistication and possible applications of microcomputers, the number of them that can be expected to be in use ten years hence may quadruple that currently in use.
The microcomputer industry has not only grown by leaps and bounds, but has experienced intense competition among its many manufacturers. Standardization among the many different kinds of microcomputers is still in its early stages, but it is expected that such will ever-advance.
In the light of this intense competition, overall market growth, and the potential for such growth in the years to come, special security measures have only recently become a necessity in order to protect files from unwanted user access, and to protect access in general for only those users given such rights. Further, a security system that is practicable, useful, and safe also must be readily adaptable to all special uses and applications of microcomputers.
There are currently available microcomputer security systems that protect, in one way or another, the P.C. from unauthorized use, but these generally suffer from many disadvantages, such as lack of adequate range of security provided, lack of enough flexibility, are software-only systems that a capable programmer may easily circumvent, and lack of central control. Most prior-art security systems are simple password-type systems that simply allow or prevent access to the file or files based on the password entered, which is compared with a list of valid passwords stored in memory.